Piping (Recall Logic) in Diary
Piping (also known as recall logic) is the ability to carry forward a participant’s closed-ended response into a subsequent question prompt within the same activity. Piping helps to provide clarity and specificity to follow-up questions by tailoring them to the participant’s previous response(s).
Here’s an example of piping:
Q1. [Closed-Ended] What is your favorite pizza topping?
-
- pepperoni
- bell peppers
- pineapple (participant selection)
- olives
- sausage
- mushrooms
- other
Q2. [Open-Ended] Why is pineapple your favorite pizza topping?
Frequently asked questions
What's the relation between piping, recall logic, and skip logic — and how does it differ from pathing or branching logic?
Some of these terms are used interchangeably across the industry, and can indicate different types of flow logic in a questionnaire. At dscout, we refer to piping as the action of recalling text from a closed-ended response, and placing that text into a subsequent question prompt. Other platforms may use the term "piping" in reference to pathing or branching logic. Pathing or branching logic most commonly refers to sending a respondent down an isolated path of subsequent questions based on their response to a prior closed-ended response. While dscout does not currently support this type of automated logic, skip logic can can be used to manually set up different pathways/branches. See how to set up skip logic here, or reach out to your dscout contact if you'd like assistance.
In which questions can I use piping?
Piping can be used to recall the response from any closed-ended question, unless the source question contains a pipe (note: the "source question" is the question from which closed-ended responses are recalled, like Q1 in the example above). Recalled responses can be piped into any question, including open-ends, closed-ends, checkpoints, and media prompts (note: the question into which closed-ended responses are piped is called the "destination question," like Q2 in the example above).
Can an “Other” response be piped in?
Yes, "other" responses can be recalled and will be carried through (piped) exactly as written by the scout. It is not recommended to use a "none of the above" option in a source question's choice list.
Can multiple-select responses be piped?
Yes, all selected responses from a multiple-select source question will appear in the destination question's prompt.
Can more than one response be piped into a single question prompt?
Yes, a destination question can include multiple responses from different source questions if needed.
Can I pipe selected responses into multiple-choice options for another prompt?
Selected responses cannot be recalled for use as response choices in a destination question.
Can questions be piped across activities?
Currently, responses cannot be recalled across activities. For example, a question in Activity 2 cannot recall a response from Activity 1.
Can I use piping in a Diary template mission?
At this time, missions created using one of our pre-built templates do not support piping logic.
Setting up piping
When writing your prompt in the Questions tab of the Setup page, use the @ symbol to recall a previous question. Begin typing to view question choices. From the drop-down menu that appears, select the question from which you’d like to recall the participant’s response(s).
Any closed-ended response can be piped, including multiple choice (single-select or multiple-select), ranking, scale, or number. Note: it is not currently possible to recall a response from a source question that has piping in its own prompt.
Responses can be piped into any question type, including media and checkpoints. It is also possible to recall more than one response within a question prompt, or recall the same response more than once.
Once the mission is live, each participant will see their own response(s) carried through when answering the question with piping.
Viewing piped responses
In Entry view
You’ll see the scout’s piped response highlighted within the prompt when viewing individual entries.
In Open-Ended Responses view
Similarly to viewing individual entries, piped answers will appear above the text of each open-ended response.
In Closed-Ended response view
When viewing closed-ended questions, piped responses will appear like any other (non-piped) closed-ended responses.
Filtering by piped responses
Just like filtering by regular (non-piped) closed-ended responses, select the response for which you’d like to see answers by clicking the activity > question > response (under Filter by Questions).
*currently, piping is only available in Diary. Stay tuned for the release of piping in Express and Recruit!